1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of manually applying liquid herbicides, insecticides, fungicides, pesticides and fertilizers to ground surfaces, plants and the like, and more particularly, relates to a low cost apparatus suitable to enable a worker to carry and use a factory filled agricultural liquid container without first requiring the transfer of the liquid to a separate container.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
There are numerous known types of applicator devices which have been developed for the direct application of liquid agricultural materials such as herbicides, insecticides and plant growth regulators by an agricultural field worker. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 2,162,057, Brandt, et al disclose a knapsack sprayer which comprises generally a liquid container which is intended to be worn on the back of a field worker to allow the worker to carry liquid chemicals comfortably into the field for spraying purposes. Straps are provided which snap upon lugs formed in the carrier and the straps are arranged to extend over the shoulders and under the arms of the operator so that the container can be conveniently worn and carried on the back of the operator.
In the device of U.S. Pat. No. 2,162,057, a container or tank is provided with a cover which is openable prior to use to permit the liquid to be sprayed to be poured into the container for subsequent field application. Such agricultural liquids are usually packaged and shipped in disposable plastic bottles of convenient size for handling, such as two and one-half gallon or ten liter capacity. After emptying the contents of the plastic bottle into the tank carried by the field worker, the empty container was usually discarded, thereby resulting in single and inefficient use of a relatively strong and costly package.
In U.S. Pat. No. 3,095,123, Smith, Sr., et al disclose a tank having a perforated shield or insulator for preventing the cold wall of the tank from directly contacting the operator. Carrying straps having conventional snap hooks extend from the tank to facilitate carrying the filled container upon the back of the worker or operator. The supply tank of Smith, Sr., et al is designed and intended to be repeatedly refilled and reused to thereby assure an extended life cycle for the apparatus to permit the application of a wide variety of liquid chemical preparations. No mention is made to reusing the original agricultural liquid shipping container.
The presently available agricultural liquid applicators are generally efficient when in use and do enable a single worker to repeatedly employ the equipment upon refilling the container with the required agricultural liquids. However, such equipment is designed to be refilled and reused and consequently, is subject to abuse and to accidents. No provisions have been made by the prior workers in the art to utilize the original shipping containers in a manner to provide increased efficiency and to minimize plastic bottle disposal problems. The prior art spraying systems can be relatively expensive in nature and subject to frequent damage, thereby materially increasing equipment costs. Accordingly, there remains a need to supply a rugged, inexpensive and easily usable container carrying device that may be simply used repeatedly with agricultural liquid shipping containers to thereby maintain equipment capital costs for field spraying to the absolute minimum.